Camouflage
by S-Chrome
Summary: Sam decides that it's time to fess up about her... feelings.


Camouflage (Cover-Up)  
By S-Chrome 

Disclaimer: The lover-ly Sam Manson was created by Butch Hartman. And Mr. Hartman was created by Nicktoons. And... Danny Phantom's real nickname is 'D-Pizzle.'

Word...

* * *

She was awakened by the early morning sun which was followed by a yawn, and a stretch of the arms. 

'I'm awake... I'm alive. What a beautiful feeling.'

_Oops. Gotta get into character._

'Great, I'm awake.'

Samantha Manson, or Sam, for short, didn't really feel like getting out of bed this particular morning. Not for any special reason... She was just a tad... out of it today. Clearing out the cobwebs, she took a look at her nightstand. It's contents was a night light and one of her prized possessions; A picture of her two best friends; Danny Fenton and Tucker Foley. With a swift reach, she took the frame of the picture and glanced at it.

The more she concentrated on the picture, the more she wanted to actually get out of bed. The goth girl studied the two boys, and a slight grin began toappear on her face.

She quickly regained her bearings... Why was she looking at those two and grinning for? They were just friends...

Well, at least one of them were. She thought of the other a bit.. differently.

Why differently, though? What was it about this particular boy? Maybe it was his not quite normal attitude? Or maybe it was his well-documented unpopularity around the halls of Casper High School. Maybe, it was that hair of his...

Or maybe she just found him attractive.

Uh-Oh...

It may have been true, but this goth named Sam Manson would be damned if she admitted this even to herself. Maybe she had been hanging out with him a little too much lately for her own comfort. Perhaps over the past few years, she had gotten so used him that she was beginning to develop...

_'Please don't admit it!'_

A slight...

_'Don't admit it!'_

Innocent...

_'Self-control! Self-control!'_

...Crush on him.

_'Darn you, Samantha Manson!'_

_Crud..._ It was admission... Nasty and cruel admission. The black haired girl fell back into her comfortable bed. That was the nail in the coffin. She was sooo not going to face this day... or her brand new crush for that matter. Maybe if she feigned sickness or malaise of any kind, her annoying parents wouldn't pester her this morning.

Just as the girl was about to pull the covers over her head.

"Wakey, Wakey!"

"Time to rise and shine, sleepyhead!"

_Blast!_ There they were. Before the Manson girl could count to two, her mother and father rushed to her bedside, urging her to get up and go.

"Come on, honey!" Her father said, the peppy tone in his voice never wavering. "You know what they say, Seize the Day!"

"Who says that?" An annoyed Sam asked, her arms crossed.

"We do!" Her even more cheery mother said. "Come along, it's off to another big day at school..."

There was just no arguing with the 'rents. After a quick shower and breakfast, she felt like she was ready to go forth and do something. As for being ready to face her secret crush? Not so much.

She was a little afraid of telling him how she felt. She could just imagine his bluish eyes shining in obvious confusion... and his hair standing on end.

...Actually, she thought with a smirk, he'd actually look kind of cute that way.

She quickly shook off those thoughts... Darn... She was gushing on her crush already. Adding to that, it was kind of wrong to think of one of her best friends this way, but she just couldn't help it. Besides, it wouldn't be like anyone would know... except maybe a ghost... or she made her hints to him that obvious, which she had **zero **intentions of doing.

'Of all people, she had to start crushing on one of her best friends', Samantha thought sighing. This was so _typical._

One of the high goals in the teen's life was to never be typical. But at the age of fifteen now, she fell into the trap. 'Crushing on of one her best friends,' She mentally scolded herself. 'What was this, _Dawson's Creek_?'

The raven-haired teen went out the door of her insidiously ostentatious home and ambled on her way to school.

It wasn't long until she crossed paths with Danny & Tucker. The threesome exchanged greetings and walked the rest of the way to school together.

The morning classes went on without much incident. The black-haired girl tried her hardest from eyeing her crush who was seated a few rows across from where she was seated and was for the most part, successful. The one exception was in the cafeteria. She thought it would be a better idea if she sat alone for the time being. Both Danny & Tucker didn't seem to mind too much. Sam momentarily let her guard down and began to stare at the boy who was a few feet away. She gave a little sigh... How in the world was she going to break it to him that she likes him that way? And even more importantly, what's...

_"Hey, who's the hottie?"_

The goth girl's thoughts were interrupted by a familiar voice.

'Oh no,' Sam dreaded as she turned around to face the voice. She had to be caught at the most inoppurtune time and by the most inoppurtune person.

Valerie Grey.

"What do we have here?" The ghost huntress asked in mock shock. "What do you know? The goth likes the..."

The goth girl in question sprung from her sitting position to cover the blabbing Valerie. After a few muffled protests, Valerie forceably removed Sam's hand away from her mouth.

"Jeez," She said, collecting herself for a moment. "Secretive, aren't we?"

Sam, who had the look of embarrassment clearly plastered on her face couldn't respond.

"Don't worry, Sammie. Your secret's safe with me," The dark-skinned girl offered with what looked like a sincere smile. Whether it looked sincere or not, the Manson girl was quite unnerved at the fact that her secret was outed that easily by that... girl, Valerie. It was just another thing to worry about in light of her new found 'feelings.'

Then again, what was there to worry about? She was a free thinking goth girl! If he didn't return her feelings it was his loss.

Wasn't it?

After more pondering in the afternoon classes, Sam came to a conclusion; She was just going to come right out and tell him. Not only because this secret admirer junk was beginning to bother her, but it'd be a lot better for her crush to hear it from her, rather than someone else... like, per se, Valerie... or anyone else who liked sticking their noses in business that weren't there's, for that matter.

She left out of math class,which was her last class of the afternoon and saw an amusing, but typical sight; Her friend Tucker trying in vain to proposition an attractive girl into going out with him. Naturally, the girl turned him down. The girl gave out a sigh as she watched the tech boy try to shake off his most recent rejection.

Sam was concerned about the way Tucker was taking this. Usually, he let these matters with girls bounce off of him. By the looks of things, however, he seemed to have taken this latest dismissal a bit hard. The girl was very much inclined to go over and talk to him.

And that she did.

"Hey, Tucker? You OK?" She nervously asked.

"Yeah... uh... Hey, Sam," He replied, regaining some of his familiar cheerfulness. "So, what's up?"

"I just saw what happened," The goth girl said hesitantly, rubbing her forearm lightly. "I just want--"

"Come on, Sam, it happens all the time. I-I'm sort of used to it now," Tucker cut in, his cheerful voice disappearing once again.

"Are you going to be OK?"

"Does the new MP-One have 250 megs of super music storage?" He asked with a wink.

Oh no... Not again with all of the techno talk. One of these days, Tucker had to figure out that the latest gadgets were not the center of the universe. Instead of replying sarcastically, which was she would usually do, she kept her answer to a minimum.

"Uh... I guess," Sam answered, a nervous smile crossing her face.

"Then there's your answer," The aqua-eyed boy replied with a warm smile.

"Hey, I don't want to change the subject, but... where's Danny?"

"He had to leave early," Tucker replied. "Something about a ton of homework."

"OK," Sam replied, still a bit shakily. "Soooo, do you wanna walk home with me?"

"Why not?" Tucker answered.

The two friends walked together silently toward their destinations. Within about ten minutes, they reached Sam's home.

"Well, this is your stop,"The tech-expert said.

"OK, Tucker... Seeya later," The black-haired girl said while walking toward the door.

There was something that wasn't quite right as Sam fumbled around for her keys. There must have been something that she wanted to say to the young man, but never got a chance to.Then, as she located her key, she found out what she had forgot to say.

Racing her way down the block, she finally got to where Tucker was.

"Hey, Tucker?"

"Sam? What's going on? Did you forget something?"

"Well, yeah," She said hesitantly once again. "I wanted to say that... you shouldn't feel bad about what happened earlier. B-Because _I..._ er, I mean, we, as in Danny and I, like you... just the way you are," Sam explained, floundering between each sentence.

Tucker was confused, which was kind of rare. The boy knew of ten different programming languages on the internet and yet didn't know what Sam was trying to say. Ironic, isn't it?

"Uh... OK," He said uneasily. "Is that it?"

"Umm..." Sam really didn't want to say much more than what she had just said, from fear of sounding silly or stupid... But, the urge to resist wasn't as strong as the urge to continue rambling.

"Er... No. I also wanted to say that um... You'll find a girl that likes you for you one of these days."

"Ohhkay, But what I want to know is--" 

"--And you shouldn't listen to what girls say anyway... All girls are horrible."

"Uh, Sam? _You're_ a girl."

Oops... The goth girls' face turned a pinkish color in embarrassment at the mistake...

"I know that. But I happen to be a girl, that's your friend," She said trying to save face.

"Uh... That's true. Anyway, Sam, I gotta get home... What exactly are you trying to tell me?"

It was a fair question. Tucker knew that she was rambling, and she knew that she was rambling. It was time to spit out the truth.

"What I'm trying to tell you is that somewhere, there's a nice girl out there for you if you look hard enough," She said with finality, her hands behind her back.

Tucker sighed. That was all?

"Oh... That's O---"

Whatever the tech expert was going to say was silenced as he felt a pair of lips press briefly onto his cheek.

"--K," He finished. His eyes glazing over from what just transpired.

"But what I really wanted to say was that the girl for you might be right in front of you," She said with an unusually seductive air in her voice. "Understand?"

"Uh-huh," Foley replied, his mouth still hanging open.

"Good," The goth girl said. She affectionately pinched the dark-skinned boy's cheek before walking casually back to her home. Nothing could take the grin off of her face... or the shock off of his.

She knew that her techno-hottie would get it sometime. Unlike some other clueless character she knew.

* * *

The End 

Other Stuff: I've searched, and searched, and searched, and you guessed it, searched some more for a fic with this pairing, and I didn't find any. While it was disappointing to not see any, I couldn't just let it stand. So there you have it, Sam/Tucker for the masses.

You can set fire to me later.

Either way, Review, Revolt, Flame, Feedback. It's quite important, you know.

S-Chrome


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